Aug 7th, 2026 Friday Cloudy
A few months ago, a newbie joined our team.
While I would usually hesitate to use that term to describe anyone who has ten years of practice in the industry, the level of expertise (or the lack of) that he has demonstrated so far has forced me to assign him such an excuse.
Because he would be taking over one line of work that I focused on, I became his “buddy”, meaning I would guide him through the transition and teach him the ropes.
That turned out to be way more involved than I expected: most tasks seem to require a minimum three repetitions before he could grasp what he is supposed to do, and he would ask many questions that I did not imagine would need explanations, often more than once.
Nevertheless, I hope to be a good and supportive colleague, and I can certainly understand how overwhelming it could be starting in a completely new work environment. So I went out of my way to be responsive and helpful.
When he constantly messaged me inquiries that would only be a few clicks away to find out himself, I felt that it went too far. I still sent responses (fairly quickly), just so he would not feel ignored.
Yesterday, due to misunderstanding, he messed up a table we stored in the database, causing duplicates. I noticed and pointed out to him, asking him to fix it before advancing further. While he seemed to be struggling with how this would occur and how to best solve it, I happened to have several meetings back-to-back, so I told him I would reply afterwards.
A couple hours later, I finally got a break. Checking on him, I was pleasantly surprised that he had figured out and corrected the problem himself. It took him at least ten times as long as it would take if I had explained everything to him, but he did it himself.
At that moment, I realize that I may be partly responsible for his seemingly strong dependence on me.
Because I made it TOO EASY for him to get an answer. And of course, I only provide an answer if I can be sure it is the right one. This saves him lots of effort researching and sifting through information, before arriving at the result. I was the shortcut.
And why would he NOT use the quickest route when it is available?
However, when he has no choice but to face the challenge on his own, he may be slow, yet he learns. I bet he remembers this experience better than if I have told him five times. And he probably would not make the same mistake again.
That is why, counterintuitively, sometimes the less competent managers tend to have stronger teams, because the team members know to rely on themselves. And the less present parents tend to have more independent children.
We all need room for growth in order to fulfill our full potential.